Ahead of the US midterm elections, TikTok is taking further steps to reduce false information and policy violations. In order to make sure influencers are aware that paid political advertisements are forbidden, the video platform has announced new measures. The business acknowledged it needed to do more after the 2020 US election to make sure influencers abided by the rules.
Numerous races for governor, senator, and congressman will be held in November. To ensure that “the rules of the road are plainly clear when it comes to paid content around elections,” TikTok announced that it would post instructional content over the next weeks and organize briefings with influencers and ad agencies. It stated that political content will be “promptly deleted from the platform” if it was found to have been paid for and improperly disclosed. “It’s nice to see that TikTok is realizing changes may be made,” said Ellen Judson, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos.
But she cautioned that “political actors will identify and exploit that gap” and that “relying on educating influencers better about their policies is a poor substitute for systematically and proactively enhancing enforcement.” TikTok’s actions, nevertheless, go beyond commercial material. Additionally, none of the posts—paid or unpaid—may contravene the policies. According to TikTok, electoral misinformation, harassment—including those directed at election officials—hateful behavior, and violent extremism are all prohibited.
The company is taking measures to prevent the spread of posts while fact-checking is being done on the content as well.
